Würzburg is the capital of  the administrative region of Lower Franconia, Bavaria.

In Würzburg the visitors will find one of the most important palaces in Europe. The Residential Palace is an UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It was designed by Balthasar Neumann and built from 1720 to 1744. Neumann also designed the magnificent staircase with its self-supporting vault. The brilliant ceiling paintings by G. B. Tiepolo and stucco ornamentation by A. Bossi  also are unique.

Residenz © flickr/melalouise

The Hofkirche church also designed by Balthasar Neumann is worth a visit too but unfortunately closed until 2010 due to restoration works. But you can still visit the beautiful palace gardens with numerous rococo sculptures and cast iron gates by J. Georg Oegg.

The fortress “Marienberg” towers above the city. It was used as a refuge around 1000 BC and consecrated as Virgin Mary Church in 706 AD. From there you have a great view of the city and the Main River. There are also a beer garden and a restaurant.

From the old bridge “Alte Mainbrücke” you have fantastic views of the fortress and the vineyards. The same view you get from a boat when you decide to go on a little boat trip.

Würzburg has also a lot to offer for music enthusiasts. The Bach Music Festival, the Mozart Festival, the Jazz Festival and the Africa Festival are held during the year.

Residenz © flickr/vince42

If you like to taste some wine of the region you should visit Germany’s third largest vineyard, the Juliusspital, with 250 metres of arches and huge wooden wine casks.

From Würzburg you can either cycle or drive by car on the Romantic Road to Rothenburg ob der Tauber or go to Nuremberg.

Worth a visit also are the “Mineralogisches Museum” (Mineralogical Museum) with an exhibition called Planet Earth and the “Mainfränkisches Museum” with the world’s largest collection of works by Riemenschneider.
From the “Frankenwarte” on the Nikolausberg Mountain you also have a great view of the city. 173 steps lead up to the viewing platform at a height of 38 metres.

Black Forest Gateau is one of the most popular German cakes.

Shortpastry:

1 ¼ cups flour, ½ cup sugar, salt, 7 oz cold butter, 1 egg, butter for the form

Sponge:

3.5 oz butter, 3.5 oz sugar, 1 tbsp vanilla-flavoured sugar, 4 eggs, 3.5 oz ground almonds, 3.5 oz cocoa powder, ¼ cup flour, ¼ cup starch flour, 2 tsp baking powder

Filling and topping:

3 cups (drained weight) jar cherries, drained, juice reserved, 1 tbsp starch flour, 2 pt cream, whipped, 2 tbsp cherry jam, 8 tbsp Kirschwasser (schnaps), 12 cherries, 1oz chocolate shavings

Shortpastry:

Put the flour, sugar and salt into a large bowl and add cubes of the cold butter, use your fingertips to mix the ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs with no large lumps of butter remaining. Try to work fast before it gets greasy. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes.
Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and roll it out with a rolling pin. Put it into a 10 ½ inch springform cake tin, pierce with a fork and bake at 390 ° F (200 °C) for about 15 minutes until it is light brown. Turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

Sponge:

Mix soft butter, sugar, vanilla-flavoured sugar and whisk well until it is light and fluffy. Add eggs, ground almonds and the cocoa powder, stir it well and add flour, baking powder and starch flour and stir carefully. Pour the mixture into the prepared springform cake tin and bake it at 390 ° F. Take it out and leave it in the baking form until it is cold.

Filling:

Heat the cherry juice and add the starce flour, mix it with the cherries and leave it to cool.

Cut the cooled sponge into three layers using a sharp bread knife.

Spread the jam on the shortpastry and put the first layer of sponge on top spread one third of the Kirschwasser , cherries and a quarter of the cream, put the next layer on top and do the same, the same again with the third layer. Spread the sides of the cake with the rest of the whipped cream and decorate the cake with 12 whirls of cream and a cherry on top of each.

Chill it before you serve it.

Black Forest Gateau/Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte©flickr/Mikelo

The Black Forest certainly is one of the most popular travel destinations in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Black Forest/Schwarzwald © flickr/Stephan A.

The area in south-west Germany at the border to France and Switzerland is a wooded mountain range with the Feldberg being the highest peak with an elevation of 1,493 metres (4,898 ft). The region has a length of about 200 kilometres (120 miles) and width of about 60 kilometres (37 miles).

The forest mainly consists of pines and firs which to some extend are commercially used. The Black Forest is famous for its cuckoo clocks, the Black Forest gateau, Black Forest Ham and the Bollenhut hats which are part of the women’s traditional costumes and worn on special occasions only. People in more than 40 countries also know the TV-series “Black Forest Clinic” (Schwarzwaldklinik).

It is said that hiking was invented in the Black Forest, and here you find more hiking possibilities than anywhere else. There is a real network of hiking trails either in the high mountains or in the cosy forests and there are many typical “Vesteperstuben” – snack places – which await the visitors with a rustic snack. Often they are situated at mountain summits from where you have a great view over the region.

Black Forest/Schwarzwald © flickr/Allie_Caulfield

In winter the Black Forest is a real winter wonderland and you can of course go skiing in one of the numerous ski resorts. The Black Forest is also known as the birthplace of skiing in central Europe. Here the first ski club was founded and the first wooden skis were produced.

Visitors who seek relaxation should visit one of the thermal baths in Baden-Baden, Badenweiler or Bad Wildbad with their long tradition. No other German region has that many springs in such close proximity.
And there of course is the mythological side of the Black Forest with werewolves, sorcerers, witches and devils but also helpful dwarves.

Popular tourist destinations in the Black Forest are Freiburg with the famous minster, Titisee and Schluchsee lakes, where you can go diving and sailboarding, the Höllental (Hell Valley) with the statue of a jumping deer and the Triberg Waterfalls. And of course France, Switzerland and Lake Constance are not far.

The beautiful town of Ansbach on the Fränkische Rezat River is the capital of the administrative region of Middle Franconia in Bavaria, Germany.

Ansbach is located in the beautiful Middle Franconian landscape about 25 miles (40 kilometres) southwest of Nuremberg and about 90 miles (140 kilometres) north of Munich.

Margrave Palace ©Julia Höfer-von Seelen

One of the first sights you see, when you come to Ansbach is the Palace of the Margraves of Brandenburg-Ansbach in the centre of the town. The palace is open to the public and you can go on a guided tour through 27 magnificent rooms. Special attractions are the two storeyed ballroom, the mirror hall and the tile hall with about 2.800 tiles made in the former faience factory of Ansbach.

Also pretty interesting is the Bavarian state collection “Ansbacher Fayence und Porzellan“  (Faience and China of Ansbach).

If you go on a guided tour of the town you can also visit the Ansbach Synagogue which wasn’t destroyed during WW2. But as there is no Jewish community in Ansbach it isn’t used for religious purposes any longer. It is unimpressive from the outside but a s a magnificent baroque interior.

Every day except Monday the Markgrafen Museum (Margrave Museum) is open to the public. Here you can learn about Kaspar Hauser’s life in Ansbach and a lot about the history of the town.

In Platenstraße you can see the two statues of Kaspar Hauser. The first shows what he looked like in 1828 when he first appeared in Nuremberg and the second shows what he looked like in 1833 before he was assassinated.

St. Gumbertus Church with its three steeples was built in the 15th century on the site of an old abbey church of which the crypt is still preserved underneath the church.

The Orangery in the palace gardens was built from 1726 to 1728 by Carl Friedrich von Zocha and today is home of concert and congress rooms.

Herrieder Tor © Julia Höfer-von Seelen

One of the town’s landmarks is the town gate “Herrider Tor” which was build under the rule of Margrave Carl Wilhelm Friedrich Brandenburg-Ansbach (1712-1757). The octagonal tower with a height of 47 metres was built in 1750/51. The carillon on the north side of the gate was founded by the Lions Club in 1987 and can be heard every day at 11 am and 5 pm.

If you want to go shopping in Ansbach you can either do this in the more than 270 shops of the magnificent historical town centre or in the Brücken-Center shopping centre which was opened in 1997.

Regular events in Ansbach are the Rococo Festivals and the Bachwoche with many concerts which takes place every two years.

Ansbach is a good starting point for hiking tours in the beautiful Franconian landscape and for day trips to Nuremberg, the Hesselberg region with romantic towns and the Hesselberg, the highest mountain of Middle Franconia with a height of 689 metres, or you visit the lakes Altmühlsee and Brombachsee.

Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg is a very young city founded in 1715.

It was built in the centre of a forest with a fan-shaped outline, and that is why it is called Fächerstadt (fan-city). All streets lead from the city centre right into nature.

Market Square ©flickr/KlausNahr

Along the more than 1300 kilometres of the Rhine River there are many beautiful cities but Karlsruhe is not only a city with a fairly young history but also beautiful and surrounded by nature.

Karlsruhe is suited for a city break and sporty visitors can discover the city and the surrounding Rhine area by bike. For those who aren’t that sporty there are of course Rhine ferries available.

If you purchase the Welcome Card you can travel for fee with the public transport not only in Karlsruhe but also in Ettlingen, and you pay reduced entrance fees in several museums, exhibitions, theatres and the zoo.

Interesting for gamblers probably is the fact that the city of Baden-Baden with the famous casino isn’t far away.

One of the most famous sights in Karlsruhe certainly is the Karlsruhe Palace located in the heart of the city. It is said that Margrave Karl Wilhelm has slept at this very place and dreamt of the foundation of the city. And that is the reason why the city is called Karlsruhe (Karl’s rest). 32 streets run out from here.

Castle/Schloss©flickr/KlausNahr

The palace is surrounded by a beautiful park and the vestibule too is quite imposing. The palace is home of the Baden State Museum (Badisches Landesmuseum). If you climb up the 158 steps of the palace’s tower you have a great view over the fan-shaped city.

Karlsruhe also is a city of fountains. There are 204 in the city and 46 of them with drinking water. Many of the fountains are located in the city centre surrounded by small parks.

The landmark of the city is the pyramid on the market square (Marktplatz) which was built in 1823 on the site of the Concordia Church. Underneath the pyramid in the crypt of the church the body of the founder of Karlsruhe lies.

Karlsruhe has been playing a key role in the modern, democratic state of Germany for more than 50 years, as here are the Federal Constitutional Court, the Federal Court of Justice and the Federal Attorney General.

Between the palace and the market square you can find the Platz der Grundrechte (the Square of Fundamental Rights). On the square you find 24 double-sided street signs, each of them describing one aspect of right and wrong.

More historical places of interest are the Emperor’s Square (Kaiserplatz) with a statue of Emperor William I, the Square for Fredrick (Friedrichsplatz), where you can find the Chamber of Crafts and the Natural History Museum, and the Gottesaue Palace which was destroyed and rebuilt several times and now is home of the University of Music.

The Majolika Manufaktur Karlsruhe is a workshop where a variety of fine ceramic ornaments are made. About everything is produced here, from saucers to decorative elements on church roofs. A line of ceramic tiles runs from the workshop to the palace tower.

Lovers of Baden wine can have a good glass of local wine in the wine bars Heilige Sophie, LetscheBachus or any other in the city. The local cuisine is excellent too and influenced by the French cuisine as the French border is not far.

Now in spring while the the rape is blooming and the herrings are coming up the Schlei Fjord the Herring Days are held in Kappeln, Schleswig-Holstein again from 13-16 May, 2010.

With the Herring Days the town is celebrating the old tradition of herring fishing in Kappeln. The herring fences in the Schlei Fjord date back to the 15th century and the one in Kappeln is the last existing in Europe or even the world.

Herring Fence©Julia Höfer-von Seelen

The fences are made of poles with wickerwork made of brushwood. They set up funnel-shaped and lead the fish into the fishing nets like a large fish trap. In former times there used to be many herring fences in the Schlei Fjord between the mouth and the town of Arnis. Most of them were owned by the lords of the manors and they often paid the day labourers with herrings.

The most important event during the Herring Days it the herring bet. You can bet on the amount of herrings being caught at that very day and the person who wins will be Herring Queen or Herring King for one year. The money will be used for the preservation of the herring fence.

Kappeln©Julia Höfer-von Seelen

During the 4 days of the event bands will be playing, you can see the old ships in of the Museum Harbour of Kappeln, go on a ride on a boat or the old steam train of the Angelner Dampfeisenbahn and have a lot of fun and enjoy yourself.

But of course Kappeln is not only worth a visit during the Herring Days. Located in the beautiful region called Angeln on the Schlei Fjord it is worth a visit all year. The town is picturesque with an old windmill and beautiful small houses. The region also is perfect for hiking and cycling and if ratehr go swimming, the beaches of the Baltic Sea are not far.

Kappeln also is a good starting point if you want to visit Schleswig, Flensburg, Kiel, Denmark or the North Sea. Even Hamburg isn’t far away.